ONE day it was a rainy day. The rain poured and it poured, and the wind blew. It was a very disagreeable day. It poured so hard that Charlie could not go out in the yard and play in his little house. His Mother and his Auntie both said that it was the kind of day when it is best to stay indoors.
Then Charlie’s Mother said, “As it is such a rainy day that I cannot go out, I shall make preserves all the morning. I shall make plum preserves and orange marmalade, and we will have some for supper to-night.”
And his Auntie said, “I shall sew all the morning; yes, I will make myself a nice new dress.”
Topsy and Bingo and Jane did not say anything. But they all three lay down on hearth rug and went to sleep. They had decided that, as it was such a disagreeable, rainy day that they could not go out and play, they would sleep all the morning, and, maybe, dream a nice dream about playing in the fields in the country.
As for Charlie—he did not know what to do. He stood at the window and he looked out at the rain pattering on the ledge and against the window pane—and he said, “I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do!” And he said it again and again.
His Auntie said to him, “The very idea, Charlie, you have heaps of things to do! Why don’t you play with your toys—with your train and with your blocks?”
But Charlie shook his head. “It’s no fun playing with my train—it just goes round and round, and I have built everything with my blocks that I know how to build. I want something new to play! Something I have never played before.”
His Auntie thought hard for two whole minutes. Then she said, “Look here, Charlie, I have a splendid idea! You run up to my room and bring me a pile of typewriting paper that you will find on my desk. Also bring a paper of pins out of my top bureau drawer, and I will show you something new to play with.”
So Charlie ran upstairs and brought down these things. Then his Auntie told him to get his own scissors with the rounded tops and his box of colored chalks.
Charlie began to feel very interested and excited. He wondered what in the world his Auntie was going to do.